Researchers compared the genetic sequences that determine eye color to those linked to alcoholism, and “found that they line up along the same chromosome, in close proximity" which may help explain the association. However, in an interview with Health, the researchers emphasized that they “still don’t know the reason" for the correlation, and that more research is needed, according to first author Arvis Sulovari, a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biomedical sciences.
Not surprising as it corresponds with the higher rates of alcoholism in countries where light eyes are more common.
Interesting new research shows that people with blue eyes (and green to a lesser extant) may have a higher predisposition to alcoholism: http://news.health.com/2015/07/06/people-with-this-eye-color-may-have-a-greater-risk-of-alcoholism/
Researchers compared the genetic sequences that determine eye color to those linked to alcoholism, and “found that they line up along the same chromosome, in close proximity" which may help explain the association. However, in an interview with Health, the researchers emphasized that they “still don’t know the reason" for the correlation, and that more research is needed, according to first author Arvis Sulovari, a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biomedical sciences.
Not surprising as it corresponds with the higher rates of alcoholism in countries where light eyes are more common.
We know that alcoholism has a genetic component. This suggests that one of the genes predisposing to alcoholism may be close to a gene controlling eye color on the chromosome assuming the association is valid and not just a statistical fluke.
Interesting new research shows that people with blue eyes (and green to a lesser extant) may have a higher predisposition to alcoholism: http://news.health.com/2015/07/06/people-with-this-eye-color-may-have-a-greater-risk-of-alcoholism/
Researchers compared the genetic sequences that determine eye color to those linked to alcoholism, and “found that they line up along the same chromosome, in close proximity" which may help explain the association. However, in an interview with Health, the researchers emphasized that they “still don’t know the reason" for the correlation, and that more research is needed, according to first author Arvis Sulovari, a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biomedical sciences.
Not surprising as it corresponds with the higher rates of alcoholism in countries where light eyes are more common.
We know that alcoholism has a genetic component. This suggests that one of the genes predisposing to alcoholism may be close to a gene controlling eye color on the chromosome assuming the association is valid and not just a statistical fluke.
I'd need to see statistics. American Indians are known to have a high rate of alcoholism. As far as I know they are all brown eyed.
Lois
We know that alcoholism has a genetic component. This suggests that one of the genes predisposing to alcoholism may be close to a gene controlling eye color on the chromosome assuming the association is valid and not just a statistical fluke.
I'd need to see statistics. American Indians are known to have a high rate of alcoholism. As far as I know they are all brown eyed.
Lois
The devil is in the details here. Neither eye color nor alcoholism are controlled by a single gene. Someone may become an alcoholic due to a genetic predisposition but that genetic predisposition may not be the same in every group of people. So one gene may be closely linked to alcoholism and reside on a chromosome that is also linked to blue eyes in one population but another group may have a different gene that predisposes to alcoholism that resides on a different chromosome or further away on the same chromosome making linkage much weaker.
Linkages like these are often population specific and more complex than everyone initially assumes.
Interesting new research shows that people with blue eyes (and green to a lesser extant) may have a higher predisposition to alcoholism: http://news.health.com/2015/07/06/people-with-this-eye-color-may-have-a-greater-risk-of-alcoholism/
Researchers compared the genetic sequences that determine eye color to those linked to alcoholism, and “found that they line up along the same chromosome, in close proximity" which may help explain the association. However, in an interview with Health, the researchers emphasized that they “still don’t know the reason" for the correlation, and that more research is needed, according to first author Arvis Sulovari, a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biomedical sciences.
Not surprising as it corresponds with the higher rates of alcoholism in countries where light eyes are more common.
We know that alcoholism has a genetic component. This suggests that one of the genes predisposing to alcoholism may be close to a gene controlling eye color on the chromosome assuming the association is valid and not just a statistical fluke.
I'd need to see statistics. American Indians are known to have a high rate of alcoholism. As far as I know they are all brown eyed.
LoisThe study was carried out with only Whites, so the message is that light eyed Whites are more predisposed to it than brown eyed Whites.
The way I heard it, back when, is that people whose genetic/social heritage was among those who historically had the shortest exposure to alcohol, were more likely to become alcoholics. Hence, e.g., Jewish people have some the lowest incidence of alcoholism and American Indians some of the highest incidence of alcoholism.
I would think that Alcoholism would have to be pretty severe to prevent survival to reproduction, and their offspring’s survival to reproduction, but I guess, given enough generations, non-alcoholics would tend to be selected preferentially in the evolutionary process, especially since a non-alcoholic parent would generally, probably, be better at helping their offspring to survive to reproduction. Also, with alcoholic mothers, fetal alcohol syndrome would probably weed out offspring pretty quickly in times of yore.
I had an alcoholic grandfather and my kids’ paternal grandfather and his 4 brothers were all alcoholics, Yet my own three sons barely drink and my daughter has hardly ever tasted alcohol. She hates the taste and even the smell of it. Two of my sons have brown eyes. The other one and my daughter have hazel eyes. There are lots of blue eyes on both of my parents’ families and in the family if my kids’ father. though mine are brown.
Meanwhile my present husband (not my kids’ father), has a blue eyed nephew who is an alcoholic and drug addict. Nobody else in the family, as far as we can tell drank to excess or took drugs.
Too small a sample to mean anything, I know, but it’s interesting to me, anyway. Also, one of my sons is a Type 1 diabetic. No one I can find in my or his father’s family was or is a Type 1 diabetic.
Another anomaly, though probably not rare. Both my eldest son son and his wife have brown eyes and dark brown hair but their daughter is a blue-eyed blond. There are lots of blue eyes in my son’s ancestry, but his wife’s family is or was all dark haired and dark eyed. And no, their daughter is not the milkman’s daughter.
Lois